Wireless telecommunication systems are known. In such systems, mobile communication devices (for example, mobile telephones) are operable to communicate with base stations provided by network providers.
In known wireless telecommunication systems, radio coverage is provided to network connectable devices according to areas known as cells. A base station is located in each cell to provide radio coverage. Typically, user devices in each cell are operable to receive information and data from a base station and to transmit information and data to a base station.
User equipment roam through a wireless communications system. Base stations are typically provided which support areas of radio coverage. A number of such base stations are provided and are distributed geographically in order to provide a wide area of coverage to user equipment.
When user equipment is within an area served by a base station, communications may be established between the user equipment and the base station over associated radio links. Each base station typically supports a number of sectors within the geographical area of service. Typically, a different antenna within a base station supports each associated sector. Each base station has multiple antennas.
One problem in cellular networks is uneven distribution of signal to interference and noise ratio within a cell. Such an uneven distribution of signal to interference and noise ratio can lead to very high data rates in the centre of a cell, but very poor data rates at the cell edge and between sectors supported by a base station. LTE (also known as 4G) network architecture can address uneven distribution of signal to interference and noise ratio to some extent by employing interference coordination techniques. According to such techniques, parts of available sub-carriers are reserved for edge users and thus those edge users have increased signal to interference and noise ratios. A drawback of such an arrangement is that the frequency re-use is reduced and overall capacity within the network is therefore sacrificed.
It is desired to improve the configuration of cells within a wireless communication network.